This invention relates to a method and apparatus for automatic transaction based on the use of a transaction medium card.
Japanese Patent Examined Publication No. 61-25187 of a conventional apparatus describes the transaction process after the user has inserted a card into the transaction machine on the assumption that the card will be processed normally.
This conventional machine involves such a problem that if the user's transaction medium card cannot be returned to the user due to some trouble in the automatic transaction machine, the user is unfavorably obliged to wait until he (or she) calls the staff responsible for maintenance of the machine and the staff is able to take the card out of the machine. If such a trouble occurs in an automated store without the attendance of staff or in a store where the machine is operated automatically without staff on holidays, the user is obliged to wait for a longer time until a member of the staff comes to solve the matter, and this is a serious problem.
In another example of a system described in Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 62-221773, if a card jam occurs in a transaction machine of a local office of a firm, a message on the incident of the card jam is transmitted over a communication line to the main office where a staff is normally ready to respond and it is displayed on a display board of that office. In response to the message, member of the staff of the main office sends back a signal to the machine of the local office so as to take an appropriate action based on the content of the message, e.g., the issuance of a receipt slip. However, this conventional system, in which machines of local offices need to send the message to the main office at each incident of a card jam and proceed to the instructed subsequent action, is still deficient in the cases of transaction machines operated on holidays without a staff and transaction machines installed at the outside of offices.